Christian school cites Bible and ‘impure thoughts’ to boot girl from football team

A Christian school in Georgia is using the Bible to back up their decision that an 12-year-old girl should no longer be able to play football because the boys on the team could have “impure thoughts.”

Maddy Blythe had at least four sacks playing for Strong Rock Christian School’s team last year, but just this week, the school’s CEO told her that she would no longer be able to play.

“Just for the fact that because I’m a girl,” the 12-year-old explained to WSB-TV. “Which I think is completely outrageous.”

Maddy’s mother, Cassy Blythe, created a “Let Her Play” Facebook campaign hoping that the school would rethink its decision.

In a Facebook post, Cassy Blythe said that the school’s CEO told her that “he did not believe girls should play on boys teams” because “the boys might have impure thoughts.”

He also said that “the locker room talk might be a bit much for her to handle” and “quoted the bible [sic] by saying that men and women are created equal but different and therefore should not be allowed to play the same sports.”

The CEO insisted that “he prayed about it and this was the right thing to do,” she wrote.

Cassy Blythe believes that that girls who are able to meet the requirements should be able to play on the same team as boys. She has appealed the decision to the school.

“We will not place limitations on our daughters,” Cassy Blythe added. “We will teach them to fight harder. We will teach them train better. We will teach them to take a stand.”

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David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.